Edwards speech last night went a long way in convincing me that mending fences will be fairly easy

[theboss]

Let me say that I started out this process fairly convinced that I was never going to vote for Hillary in the primary. Just on general principal, I never support "The Establishment" candidate in primaries since I think primaries are equally about setting an agenda as they are about choosing a candidate.

But I was never openly hostile to Hillary. I just didn't feel that she deserved to be the presumptive nominee based on her last name.

I was actually probably an Edwards backer early on since I had voted for him in the 2004 Primary. I was intrigued by Obama but wanted to see if there was any "there" there. And then he won me over.

And then slowly, the Clintons began to turn me off. And then upset me. And then outright anger me. And to be honest, I still think she is being foolish and destructive by dragging this campaign out.

But then Edwards spoke and I was reminded, "Hey you know what? Hillary's ok. I may think her behavior the last three months has been awful, but it is a race for the presidency and that office makes people do nutty things."

So, now, I'm pretty convinced that a classy concession speech sometime in early June is all it will take for me to get back on the Hillary bandwagon. I still don't think she should be VP - nor do I have any idea why she would want to be VP. But I think any Cabinet post she wants should be hers for the asking, even if I think what she should really want is Senate Majority Leader.

Anyway, I'm a veteran of a lot of small-town political races. (My mom got a Jim Crow Era law overturned in 1978 for God's sake in order to run for city council). I've seen nastiness that you wouldn't believe (I had a cousin drop dead of a heart attack during a council debate once). And in the end, people usually forgave each other, or at least found detente. So, I'm fairly confident today.

A big HOWEVER.....If Hillary takes her fight to the floor of the convention, all bets are off. I think it would take years for the party to recover from that.

[elocs]

1. I felt much the same. To me Clinton represented The Establishment and politics as usual.

I had originally decided to support Edwards just before he suspended his campaign. To me, Clinton just represented the past and to tell the truth I did not want finger-wagging Bill anywhere near a Democratic White House. After Wisconsin, Clinton's evident willingness to do or say anything in an attempt to destroy Obama became a very major turn-off to me, particularly her comment about how she and McCain were qualified to be Commander if Chief, but all Obama had was a speech. That was really it for me. You are right, if she is willing to take her battle to the convention floor with just a couple of months until the GE, the Democratic Party will be hurt.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Boss, I hope you are right about the "classy concession speech,"but I do wonder when she says things

like this on CNN yesterday. From ABC's The Note...

Was this a threat? "People have gone to conventions and fought out nominations with far fewer delegates," she told CNN.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/Story?id=3105288&page=2

[theboss]

4. I'm trying to be optimistic

With the Clintons you always waver between "They are smart enough to know that a floor fight will destroy to the Dems" and "They are ruthlessly ambitious and selfish enough not to give a damn."

[AtomicKitten]

3. Not sure "classy" is in the Clinton vernacular particularly in light of their strong-arm threats.

But a classy concession speech from her would do much to assuage the prickly atmosphere.